Imagining Heaven: Where God’s Excuses Fail

A little over a year ago, my then 4 year old son started asking about and referring to god, mostly because of what his friends were saying. I explained the basis of different religions, what people believe and some reasons why. When I explained how god, the loving father of humanity, commanded the slaughter and enslavement of women & children…he was shocked. He insisted “Real Daddies don’t do that!” understanding that a loving father can’t also be so horrible to his children… God simply can’t be both. It suffices to say, he doesn’t believe in that god. Now imagine that I had since been convinced that god is real and have accepted Jesus as my lord and savior. So, if my son and I were to die in a car accident, supposedly I would go to heaven and my son would not. Let’s imagine it happened.
My experience could have unfolded like this ~~>> Drifting into a glorious light, I emerged from the nothingness of death, still terror-stricken by the swerving Semi-truck, which tragically took our lives. The last thing I saw was my son’s traumatized, bleeding face before he and I died. That horrific image is still all I can see. For a moment, my thoughts flashed to the tragic scene which my wife must have witnessed, from the car behind us. Then, it got bad… really bad. My mind visited a place of unimaginable pain. Fearing the worst, I frantically searched for my son, but he was not there. I screamed out to him several times, louder and louder, with no reply. In a swelling, darkening terror, I began to accept where he had been sent. Hell. The reality of god’s law suddenly became one of unfathomable cruelty. I began to weep… forever.

Even a temporary separation from your child, when s/he could be scared and hurt, would be maddening, but the knowledge that he is alone, terrified, helpless and being TORTURED is the worst imaginable hell. The WORST IMAGINABLE HELL! Once you imagine this potential pain and despair, something else becomes abundantly clear; This is the doing of an horrific monster! For some incomprehensible reason, in life, Christians are compelled to not judge god’s (supposed) atrocities and eternal torturous practices, because he is “all loving and perfect”. How gullible and conditioned are you to buy such nonsense? Can you not see how morally superior you are, compared to this god you defend?

Continuing the scenario as if your own:… Every “heavenly” moment, your panic intensifies. You desperately plead through painful sobs, begging god to make an exception to his horribly wicked law. Nothing happens… welcome to heaven.
Before long your uncontrollable weeping is drowned out by many other new arrivals, also facing the same horrific realizations. ( A full 2/3 of all the deaths on Earth didn’t make it here today, which means about 100,000 souls, including so many beloved children, are now damned, terrified and burning forever.) Upon entering this “bliss”, their first impression of Heaven would be a rolling, tormented cacophony of pain. All around you, souls bear the same uncontrollable, weeping and wailing affliction. They’re tormented by the thoughts of burning loved ones or by indelible scars from horrible, painful, starved, diseased, abused, evil deaths, which no god saved them from. In such devastating despair you might stab at yourself to end the pain. I would. How inconvenient, now that you now can’t die and can’t end your pain… glory to god!

Among the horrific, grating sounds of those souls sentenced to heaven, the rapturous laughter of serial killers, murderers, rapists and abusers would stand out, as they wallowed in their perfect heaven. Obviously, the rest of the crowd entering Heaven need not be moral either, as its not a requirement, but most will be. This clueless flock would arrive to the droning of unfortunate souls and a scene akin to Hell itself. Shortly, they would realize what they had ignored their entire lives; “God is a real Prick… The book even SAID SO… and I defended him!” This environment of chaos and pain would splinter into anger and a need for justice would surge. Humans would NOT tolerate such a tyrant. Anger erupts over the wailing, with brave shouts of “DAMN YOU” ringing out. In this stark reality of god’s evil, the last weeping souls and sickened loyalist would be transformed by a morally united and free-willed, unearthly rage of humanity!

* * * * *

How would your “Loving” god handle this inevitable, vengeful, riotous hell in Heaven? Would he magically remove everyone’s morality or perhaps increase their fear to better control them? Would he simply make you forget about your precious, tortured love, whom he sent to burn forever? If so, you certainly would no longer be yourself for all eternity and the monster still gets your worship anyway. Even worse, that means your “loving god” would be forcibly taking your loved one(s) away from you… twice!

Inexplicably, this lunacy still stands as God’s great reward, in contrast to his utterly shortsighted threat, hell. A remotely moral or intelligent being wouldn’t have made a hell, if not simply to avoid its consequences. Hell is clearly a man-made tactical concept to better transmit its parent religion’s ideals to the next generation. More obviously, this draws into question the entire Bible’s validity, with fearful or controlling men being behind the quill and not a god.

The idea that anyone actually condones the torturing of 2/3 of humanity is unthinkable. If I “knew” hell were real, I would weep endlessly and beg god to end such madness. If my loved ones were among the tortured, I would rage against the tyrant with all my being. The ONLY explanation for Christians not realizing that their portrayed god is a monster and that heaven would only offer eternal grief and rage, would be deep rooted, generational brainwashing.

Considering this possibility, maybe its time to think about what you believe, by examining the validity of your excuses and evidence… and to actually start caring if your beliefs are true.

2 thoughts on “Imagining Heaven: Where God’s Excuses Fail”

Well written but interesting conversation with the kid. Our conversations have been centered upon how different believes are held traditionally in geographic area but as the world has shrank they will meet many different people with different beliefs. I have never said god was evil just that despite what their friends might believe there is no such being. Hence their friends have many different versions.